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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24589213">Robert and Roxy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle'>SugdenLovesDingle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr prompts [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Emmerdale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dogs, Fluff, M/M, Soft lads</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:20:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,870</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24589213</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron to Robert "I've never seen such gorgeous eyes before."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr prompts [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1607773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Robert and Roxy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’ve never seen such gorgeous eyes before.“</p><p>"Are you kidding me right now?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You. Gushing about that dog’s eyes.”</p><p>“Well look at them, they are gorgeous!” Aaron said and turned back to the dog. “You’re such a good looking boy, yes you are.”</p><p>Robert sighed. His husband was sitting cross legged on the floor of their local animal shelter, playing with a dog through the bars of the kennel and falling hopelessly in love with it with each minute that passed.</p><p>They’d talked about it for a long time, listed all of the pros and cons, and even though Robert wasn’t really fussed about dogs in general, he knew Aaron loved them and still missed Clyde every day.</p><p>So they’d agreed on getting a dog. Robert had googled puppies in the area and wondered out loud if they should ask Paddy if he knew of any puppies looking for new owners, but Aaron had all but had a coronary at that and insisted they’d get a dog from a shelter.</p><p>Which was fine with Robert really. They’d had a look on the shelter’s website and found a few dogs they were interested in.</p><p>Only now, now they were actually at the shelter, Aaron and his big heart was falling in love with each and every one of the dogs.</p><p>“Oh come on Rob, he’ll be yours too, come meet him.”</p><p>“Meet him? I didn’t realise we’d decided we were definitely going to adopt this one.” Robert said and squatted down next to Aaron and put his hand up to the bars. “Hey there buddy. I think Aaron has decided you’re going to come live with us. Would you like that?”</p><p>“Would you like to take him for a little walk? So you can get to know him better?” one of the shelter’s staff members asked, making them both jump.</p><p>“Oh uh… can we?” Aaron asked, scrambling to his feet.</p><p>“Of course. We have a play meadow where you can take him out for a walk and maybe throw a ball around.” the girl, Louise as it read on her name tag, explained, ignoring the fact she’d scared Aaron half to death.</p><p>“Right. Yeah. Sure. That would be nice, I guess.” Aaron said after looking at Robert who gave him a shrug and a nod.</p><p>“Great! I’ll grab a lead and I’ll show you where to go. Give me two seconds.” she said and walked away.</p><p>“She’s eager…” Robert commented when she was out of earshot.</p><p>“I guess she just wants to see this guy go to a good home.” Aaron squatted down again and scratched the dog under his chin. “You’ll have a good home with us buddy, we’ll make sure of it. We’ll go shopping for supplies right after this and you can pick out some toys and maybe a bone.”</p><p>Robert chuckled and Aaron turned around to glare at him.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Nothing. It’s just… It’s like hearing you talk to Seb when he won’t eat his tea or go to bed.” Robert said and laughed.</p><p>“Shut up.” Aaron replied and lovingly rolled his eyes at his husband.</p><p>“Right then, here we go.” Louise said when she returned with a leash and started opening the lock on the kennel. “He’s super playful and he can be a bit over excited sometimes, but he’s only about a year and a half old so you can still train him. Isn’t that right Sammy?”</p><p>Robert tried his best not to roll his eyes at the name. They were definitely changing that.</p><p>The dog happily jumped up at the girl and let her put the lead on him.</p><p>“Come on, let’s go meet your new friends.” she said and walked out of the kennel, holding the lead out to Aaron. “Would you like to hold him?”</p><p>“Sure.” Aaron took the lead from her and both he and Robert followed her to the door leading to the outside area. Only instead of walking with them, the dog pulled on the leash, determined to go the other way.</p><p>“Sammy, come on mate, we’re going outside. This way.” Aaron tried but the dog kept pulling the other way. “Fine, we’ll go that way first then. What is it that you want to do there?”</p><p>“Just pull him along, you’re the boss.” Louise reminded Aaron who just waved her comment away.</p><p>“It’s fine. We’re in no rush.”</p><p>The dog pulled him over to a kennel on the other side of the room, one of the lasts of its row.</p><p>“What’s here then?” Aaron asked, looking into the kennel but not seeing a dog.</p><p>“Is this one outside?” Robert asked Louise.</p><p>“Ah no, Roxy is a bit shy, she hides behind her bed and only really comes out when it’s quiet. We’re working with her and she’s starting to trust people again… but it’s a slow process.”</p><p>“Roxy is his friend then?”</p><p>“Yeah they were brought in together. Sammy here is all ready to go to a forever home but Roxy had some health problems and she had a tough time trusting people. Especially men. We think she might have been abused.”</p><p>“Poor thing…” Robert said and looked into the kennel, trying to catch a glimpse of the dog. “But shouldn’t these two be adopted together then?”</p><p>“Not necessarily… Sammy is ready but Roxy isn’t quite there yet.”</p><p>“What kind of dog is Roxy?” Aaron asked as Sammy scratched at the kennel door.</p><p>“A small one. A mix of sorts. We’re not 100% sure. We had to shave her because her fur was all matted when she came in.”</p><p>“Can we see her?” Robert asked. “I think this guy would like to see his friend too.” he nodded at Sammy.</p><p>Louise hesitated.</p><p>“I’m not supposed to just let two dogs together… or let people go in the kennels…”</p><p>“But you said they were friends.“ Aaron reminded her. “Surely they’ll be alright if they’re friends. And if we’re going to adopt him, the least we can do is let him say goodbye, right?“</p><p>“I suppose five minutes can’t hurt…”</p><p>Robert smiled.</p><p>“Exactly.”</p><p>She opened the kennel and Sammy rushed in, dragging Aaron with him.</p><p>“Wow, Sammy, easy mate. I’ve only got two legs and I’d like them to keep working.”</p><p>Sammy ignored him and made a beeline for the corner of the kennel where a small dog bed was pushed against the wall. He sniffed around it and tried to push it away with his nose.</p><p>Aaron let go of the lead and sat down on the floor, letting Sammy do his thing, trying to find Roxy.</p><p>“Where is she? Where is your friend?”</p><p>“Roxy, come.” Louise called out from outside the kennel but Roxy didn’t show herself. Not until Sammy had pushed away her bed and was happily licking her all over while she cowered in the corner.</p><p>“Oh my god that poor thing. She’s terrified. Aaron come out, you’re scaring her.” Robert pleaded when he saw the small dog look at his husband with eyes full of fear.</p><p>“She usually is like that when you first come into the kennel.” Louise explained. “When she realises you’re not going to hurt her, she’ll calm down and come check you out. You can go in too if you like. Just sit down on the floor and make yourself small and she’ll come to you. Especially with Sammy perfectly happy with the two of you being there.”</p><p>Robert hesitated for a minute but then went in too and sat down next to Aaron, careful not to completely block the dog’s escape route or make any sudden movements.</p><p>Sammy was clearly loving everything and desperately tried to divide his attention between his little friend and the new humans.</p><p>“I’m not sure this was such a good idea…” Robert said, looking at the small dog.</p><p>She seemed to have gotten over the initial shock of having two strangers in her kennel but was still keeping her distance and giving them wary looks.</p><p>“I don’t know… she’s calmed down a bit already.” Aaron pointed out and held out a bit of dry food from the bowl Sammy had knocked over in his enthusiasm, but Roxy wouldn’t take it from his hand.</p><p>The two of them, with help from Louise and Sammy tried to coax Roxy out but to no avail.</p><p>“This isn’t going anywhere. She’s clearly scared of us.” Robert said, moving to sit with his back against the wall, and stretching his legs out in front of him. He tried to rub the cramp out of his thighs, and as he did that, Roxy came to sit on his lap, trying to hide in his leather jacket. “Oh… hello there…” he said and looked up at Aaron with a did you just see that look on his face.</p><p>“She likes you.” Aaron said, voice barely above a whisper.</p><p>Robert lifted his jacket a bit and carefully stroked the dog’s back, surprised when she let him.</p><p>Sammy came to check out his friend’s new hiding place before deciding everything was alright and sitting down in between Robert and Aaron.</p><p>Robert kept carefully petting Roxy and even got her to take some of the dry food from his hand, all while hidden in his jacket.</p><p>“So uhm…” He started looking at Aaron. “I think she just adopted me…”</p><p>Aaron nodded.</p><p>“Yeah I think so too. Can we handle two dogs?”</p><p>“This one is hardly a dog is it? Some of Seb’s teddies are bigger.” Robert reasoned and turned to Louise who was sitting on the floor outside the kennel. “So… exactly how not ready for adoption is she?”</p><p>“Well… she’s very fearful of strangers… and like I said, she’s got some medical conditions we’re still treating…”</p><p>“Anything serious?”</p><p>“Not as far as we know. Just her skin and she had worms.”</p><p>“That’s manageable.” Aaron reasoned. “My step dad is a vet, he can give her any treatment she needs.</p><p>“That’s good… but she’s not… technically up for adoption yet…”</p><p>“Is she friendly to kids?” Robert asked, ignoring her protest.</p><p>“We… we don’t know yet. We haven’t tried yet. We’ve barely been able to get her to trust us enough to let us feed her.”</p><p>Robert nodded and looked at Aaron.</p><p>“I reckon it’ll be alright. We’ll just have to make her get used to Seb slowly.”</p><p>“Yeah and he can play with Sammy instead.”</p><p>“We’re changing that name though. Two Sams in the family is too complicated.”</p><p>Aaron laughed.</p><p>“I reckon human Sam would come running every time we called this guy over.”</p><p>“Yeah and we don’t need that.” Robert chuckled.</p><p>“So we’re doing this?”</p><p>“Yeah. We’re doing this.”</p><p>An hour and a lot of arguing with Louise’s supervisor over Roxy later, they were in the car, on the way to the nearest pet store in Hotten to get some supplies for the new members of their family.</p><p>Aaron was driving, Sammy excitedly checking out his surroundings from the back seat, and Robert in the passenger’s seat, still with Roxy in his lap.</p><p>Aaron glanced sideways and smiled. He carefully reached out to scratch behind Roxy’s ears.</p><p>“I get it. I fell in love with him the first time I saw him too.”</p>
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